International Journal of Jyotish Research: 2021; 6(1): 104-116
ISSN: 2456-4427
Impact Factor: RJIF: 5.11
Jyotish 2021; 6(1): 104-116
© 2021 Jyotish
www.jyotishajournal.com
Received: 17-01-2021
Accepted: 18-03-2021
Dr. Nagesh Rajopadhye
Astrology Researcher,
www.AstrologyYesOrNo.com,
Pune, Maharashtra, India
Corresponding Author:
Dr. Nagesh Rajopadhye
Astrology Researcher,
www.AstrologyYesOrNo.com,
Pune, Maharashtra, India
Email: astrobasedresearch@gmail.com
Comparison of Vedic astrology birth charts of
celebrities with ordinary people: An empirical study
Dr. Nagesh Rajopadhye
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/24564427.2021.v6.i1b.114
Abstract
This article examines few fundamental principles of Vedic astrology through a systematic empirical
experiment conducted on 742 birth charts of people who have been celebrities and 509 charts of people
who have not been celebrities and have led ordinary lives. Each of the 21 fundamental principles of
Vedic astrology we tested was found to be invalid as the compliance was not significantly different
between both groups. These principles include some of the most commonly used principles, such as
planet in conjugation or opposite to Jupiter or Venus gives beneficial effect, exalted lord of house is
beneficial for its significance or auspicious planets in the house give benefits for which the house is
significant, etc. Further, to examine whether these principles act together to give differentiation, the
comprehensive test consisting of the comparison of astrological positivity and negativity of all planets,
houses and lords of houses was demonstrated as a potential empirical approach. If the principles we have
tested were true, we should have seen significant differences in the total negativity or positivity of at least
one planet, house or lord of the house in the test, but there were none. Thus, our results proved that
neither these principles are valid individually nor in combination. Two of our earlier experiments on
similar lines for other pairs of the groups, namely mentally disabled versus intelligent and Cancer versus
no cancer, had shown the similar results for the same set of principles. It shows just how invalid they are
across the board and beyond any doubt. Since the principles we tested are something that one cannot do
away with, in the everyday practice of astrology, their invalidity proven through our test raises many
questions about the accuracy of the predictions of Vedic astrology in general and career in particular.
Keywords: Vedic astrology, empirical testing, career success, celebrity, astrological principles
1. Introduction
Across the world, interest in astrology was already experiencing something of a renaissance in
the years and on top of it, the pandemic of Covid 19 only added fuel to the fire. India is no
exception to this global trend. An August 2019 survey conducted by MTV Insights [1] found
that there has been a 62% increase in horoscope / card reading apps between 2017 to 2019 in
India. The majority of users are between the ages of 19 and 28. The survey further observes,
75 percent trust that astrology works, and 65 percent regularly check their horoscope. A more
scientific survey at a higher scale is probably required to gauge the uptrend accurately but the
fact remains that the younger generation is increasingly using Vedic astrology to take their key
decisions. The popularity of Vedic astrology has only gone up with the advent of mobile
technology, accelerated via the Internet, and has reached new levels through social media and
the new generation apps.
If we take a random scan of social media sites providing astrological consultations, half of the
questions of millennials are about the career choices they should make. Many of them want to
know whether they will ever be a celebrity. Indeed, thanks to the social media, the celebrities
have become an aspiration of everyone, but the use of astrology to select the career line, or to
discover the possibilities of success, is a real concern. This is because despite the claims of
astrologers, the Vedic astrology has never proven its merit in the scientific framework. Given
its enormous impact on people and its ability to influence the behaviour of society, there is a
need to test Vedic astrology thoroughly and scientifically. It is also necessary to examine
astrologers' assertions about career prediction because career is a critical decision and has a
serious impact on an individual’s life.
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When it comes to testing astrology, there have been numerous
experiments carried out in the Western world [2, 3] but the
arguments have been from both sides [4, 5, 6] and the debate has
remained inconclusive. Dean has been a prominent critic of
astrology who tested many claims of astrologers, including
sun signs and the outcome was negative [2, 7, 8]. His book [9] is
the best compilation of number of empirical studies carried
out in the world. Though there has been extensive work in
testing astrology in western world there are a very few
attempts reported in the context of Vedic astrology [10, 11, 12, 13].
Among these, the work done by Bhandary et al. [10] and Oshop
et al. [11] is in support of astrology. In the work carried out by
Bhandary et al. the test was not publicly conducted, the
sample size has been smaller (of 75 in each group) and the
exact astrological parameters used by astrologers for
predictions are not detailed out. There is no scope for the
researchers to repeat this experiment and verify. The work by
Oshop et al. [11] is also on a very small sample size. Contrary
to the conclusions of these two researchers, Narlikar et al. [12,
13]
showed that a success rate of astrologers participating in
their double-blind test was marginally less than what would
be achieved by tossing a coin. This test in our view is the first
ever attempt to scientifically test Vedic astrology in India. It
was a publicly held double-blind test of Indian astrology and
created a lot of ripples in the society since it showed that
astrologers failed to predict human attributes like intelligence.
In such double-blind experiments however, particularly when
the outcome is negative, an ambiguity remains whether the
results are due to limitations of astrology or astrologers. A
thorough testing of astrology on the basis of astrological
principles, conducted at scale, through a scientifically
designed empirical experiment was therefore conducted by
Rajopadhye et al. [14] leveraging same set of charts that was
used in above double-blind test. This kind of testing at scale,
using computer and statistical techniques, was done for the
first time for Vedic astrology and can be regarded as
pioneering efforts. In this test two data sets with exactly
opposite life patterns were created with sufficient sizes, one
consisting of 338 birth-charts of ‘intelligent’ people and the
other consisting of 338 birth charts of people with Intellectual
and development disability, referred as IDD people. Each of
the eleven fundamental and most commonly used negative
principles of Vedic astrology used for planets, houses and
lords of houses to predict adverse effects were found to be
invalid after comparing both the groups as there was no
significant difference in the compliance. Similarly, each of the
eight most commonly used principles used to predict
beneficial effects were also found to be invalid. Besides
testing individually, to check if these principles act as
differentiator through a combination, 34 entities (all planets,
Ascendant, houses, and lords of houses) were compared for
total astrological negativity and total positivity (created
through compliance of all negative and positive rules
respectively) but none of them differed beyond 10% between
both groups. These results proved that all these principles do
not act as a differentiator themselves, nor do they produce a
differential negativity through negative principles (or
positivity through positive principles) when they are summed
up together. This explained why no one could achieve a
success rate better than random chance in the double-blind
test. A similar experiment was later done by the same author,
taking two groups namely people diagnosed with cancer
(before age of 60) and people who lived long life (80+ years)
but never had cancer in their lifetime [15]. In this study, the
results reconfirmed the observations made in earlier
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experiment and once again proved that Vedic astrology is not
proving its merit empirically.
The research presented in this article is the third attempt in
series to empirically test the same set of principles of Vedic
astrology as tested earlier [14, 15], with one more pair of exactly
opposite life effects, namely celebrities or famous
personalities and people who are not celebrities meaning
those who lead a normal life with average or not much of
fame. While we cannot claim to have examined the full scope
of astrology here, what we have tested here is the core of
Vedic astrology, which consists of the most fundamental
principles used in the everyday practice. These are regarded
as the foundation of astrology in textbooks and in our opinion
their importance is such that if they are proved or disproved, it
is as good as validating or invalidating Vedic astrology. The
research presented here also provides a specific insight into
whether Vedic astrology can predict the native's celebrity
status, a question most commonly asked on social media.
2. Methodology
The approach to the design of this test was – form two distinct
and opposite groups, analyse birth-chart the way astrology
works by applying the principles or rules, measure
astrological negativity and positivity associated with various
entities and finally compare the average values of both groups
through statistical methods to see if there is any significant
difference. This approach was used to test validity of
individual rules as well as their application as a set or group
of rules to make overall prediction. The methodology of
empirical testing of this study consists of following steps
1. Define criteria for making two distinct and opposite
groups of the data
2. Define astrological negativity and positivity, the
parameters we want to measure
3. Define Measurement method
4. Develop experimental set up for the measurements
5. Define statistical techniques for comparison and analysis
The details of each step are given in following sub-sections.
2.1 Criteria definition
One of the key factors for the success of empirical tests is to
define the criteria on the basis of which two distinct groups
are formed for comparison. Here, it is important that we do
not leave room for interpretation and that the criteria be as
objective as possible. We therefore selected a very clear
criterion – whether the person is a celebrity. The term
Celebrity is used to mean the state of fame and what we mean
by Celebrity here is the famous personalities who are known
for their exceptional talent and good achievements. We are
basically referring to people who are known nationally
(within their own country) or internationally either for
entertainment, sports, literature or politics. All Bollywood,
Hollywood stars, politicians, national team players of popular
games, famous authors who have written couple of books,
industrialists will qualify for this group. Being a celebrity is
different than having a small but loyal cult following. Being
easily recognizable by any random segment of the population
makes you a celebrity. One of the criteria considered for
including in this group was, people who have a Wikipedia
biography page, which automatically takes care of ‘notability’
criteria well defined by Wikipedia itself.
For people in opposite group namely ’ordinary people’ the
same criteria were used in the sense that people who do not
have wiki biographic page and are not famous at a national
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level were included in the group. Some additional checks
were done to ascertain that they genuinely are ‘ordinary’ such
as they do not own any business, they are not politically
active, do not represent state (province) for any sports, have
not published any literature, are not extraordinary rich or most
importantly are not famous for any reason etc. For the sake of
such checks people who are personally known to the authors
were only taken in this group. Moreover, only people with the
age of 50 or more were taken so that there is enough evidence
that they spent substantial part of their life being an ordinary
men and women without becoming a celebrity. Based on this
logic, we formed two groups of birth charts, Group A – 509
charts of Ordinary people and Group B – 742 charts of
celebrities.
2.2 Astrological negativity and positivity
We have taken up this study with the objective of testing a
few basic astrology principles which contribute to the
negativity or positivity associated with the planet, the house
and the lord of the house (hereafter all three together are
referred as entities). These principles are fundamental in
nature and are universally applied in astrology for everyday
practice.
It is a known fact that in astrology, every planet or house in
the birth chart has a significance towards a particular life
effect (Raman, 1996, chapter 1, Rao, 2004, pp 79-84) [16, 17, 18,
19]
. For example, Mercury has significance for the native's
intelligence, Venus and seventh house have significance for
the marriage and so on. Since the purpose of this paper is to
test the principles, we would like to elaborate a little more on
them. One of the astrology principles states that when the
planet is in debilitated zodiac sign the outcome of the life
effect that is signified by the given planet is adverse
(Agarwal, 2019, pp 125-130; Raman, 1996, chapter 1; Rao,
2004, pp 34) [16, 17, 19, 20, 21]. The counterpart of this principle
affirms that if the planet is in the exalted zodiac sign, then the
result related to significance of planet is beneficial. We call
this as principle because it is universally applicable to all the
planets. If we apply it to Mercury, a specific entity, it
becomes a rule and will be used to predict intelligence.
Similarly, if we apply the same principle to Venus, it will
become a rule used to predict outcome of marriage. The
principle is more generic in nature, considered as premise of
astrology and is most agreeable, the reason why we focussed
on them to test astrology. On the other hand, the rule is an
adaption of a principle for a specific entity. Another principle
defined for the planets states that when the planet is
conjugated with malefic planet like Saturn or Mars the
outcome gets adversely affected (Raman, 1996, chapter 3;
Rao, 2004, pp 100-120) [16, 17, 18, 21]. It's counterpart asserts on
conjugation with auspicious planets like Jupiter, Venus or
Moon and expect the outcome to be positive. Here the
astrological configurations associated in these two examples,
namely the planet in the debilitated or exalted sign in first
example and the planet in the conjugation with malefic or
auspicious planets in second example, are considered to create
astrological negativity or positivity respectively which in turn
are seen as giving rise to adverse or good effects in the life.
Likewise, there are several principles in astrology which are
applied to all entities, which presumably signify various
aspects of our life and accordingly the predictions, either good
or bad, are made. Testing these principles is therefore as good
as testing a major aspect of astrology because astrology
cannot be practiced without applying them. Having seen what
we mean by principles and how they reflect in birth chart in
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terms of astrological negativity and positivity, we now come
to the principles that we have actually tested in this exercise.
Since we have two exactly opposite groups in terms of
characteristics, namely being a celebrity, comparing them for
compliance to the rule that predicts ‘being a celebrity’ is the
most ideal way of conducting this empirical testing. It must be
noted, however, that in astrology there is no single rule that
one can check and predict. In fact, there are always a large
number of rules set out to predict a good or bad outcome of a
particular life effect. This is because astrology assumes that
for any life effect there are planet(s), house(s) and lord(s) of
house(s) that are significant and they all need to be taken into
account. A prediction of a beneficial effect of life (e.g.
becoming celebrity) will therefore be made on the basis of the
total positivity associated with entities which are considered
as ‘significant’. The positivity in these significant entities is a
result of complying with various positive rules. The way
astrology is practiced, the approach to define the rules for
being a celebrity would go through following steps;
Step 1: Identify entities (planets, houses and lords of houses)
that are significant for getting success and fame or for being a
celebrity.
Step 2: Shortlist the principles that predict beneficial effects
and apply them to the identified entities.
For instance, for predicting being a celebrity some astrologers
may evaluate Sun and Mars as planets of significance, 10th
and 9th house as houses of significance and the lords of 10th
and 9th house as significant lords of houses [21, 22]. For
predicting beneficial effect (namely being a celebrity), the
positivity involved in these entities is evaluated by means of
applying positive principles and measuring how many of them
are complied with. Here there is no authentic guideline in
terms of minimum number of rules that should be complied
with for predicting the celebrity status and therefore the
judgement of that number will differ from astrologer to
astrologer. From our testing point of view however, if those
principles are true, the compliance will always be more in
Group B (Celebrity) than Group A (Ordinary). The only
challenge in defining such celebrity specific rules is that there
are too many different opinions on which entities are exactly
significant for prediction. The use of celebrity specific rules in
empirical tests would therefore be questionable and will not
be a fruitful exercise.
On this background, a new approach of comprehensive testing
has been developed where instead of applying shortlisted
principles to only a few selected entities (considered as
significant), we apply them to all planets, Ascendant, 12
houses and their lords. We have shortlisted two sets of
fundamental principles of astrology, one that predict adverse
effects, and another one that predicts good or benefic
(beneficial) effects. For the purposes of the present article, we
call them 'negative principles’ and 'positive principles'
respectively. As mentioned earlier, given the diversity of
opinions regarding planets or houses that are significant for
predicting celebrity status, we applied these principles to all
entities, that is, to all individual planets, all twelve houses and
also lords of these twelve houses. Please note that when the
negative principle is applied to an entity, it becomes a
‘negative rule’. And when the positive principle is applied it
becomes 'positive rule'. We measured negativity and
positivity associated with each entity based on the compliance
to negative and positive rules respectively. Details about their
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calculations are provided in the following section. The
comparison of astrological negativity and positivity in two
groups of birth charts was carried out for each entity using
statistical techniques. The rationale behind this test approach
is that regardless of which entity is significant for giving
celebrity status, if the negative or positive principles we are
testing are true they will result in significant difference in
compliance between two groups for atleast one entity. With
this approach we cover different opinions about the
significance of the planets, houses and lords of houses for
prediction of being a celebrity and hence we call this a novel
approach.
The most important aspect of this study was to identify the
right negative and positive principles to use in the test. Since
there is no single authentic document depicting these
principles, we went through a number of books and research
articles [16-21], deliberated with number of astrologers and
prepared our list. The idea was to have principles that are
universally agreeable and hence we selected only those which
are given as fundamental principles in the astrology
textbooks. Our list of negative and positive principles
shortlisted for the planet, house and the lord of house is given
through Table 1 to Table 4. We believe that there will be no
disagreement with them from astrological point of view
although there can still be differences of opinion about which
entities they should be applied to, the part that is well covered
by our comprehensive testing approach.

Table 1: List of negative principles tested for each planet. The same set of principles was also used for testing planets which act as ‘lord of
house’
Principle No. Principles
1.1 Planet is in conjugation or square or opposite to Saturn, Mars, Rahu, Ketu or Uranus
1.2 Planet is in debilitated state in D9 chart
1.3 Planet is in 6th, 8th or 12th house
1.4 Planet is in malefic nakshatra namely Krittika, Ashelsha, Mul
1.5 Planet is Retrograde
Planet is afflicted by 3rd or 10th aspect of Saturn or 4th or 8th aspect of Mars (If afflicted by both malefic planets
1.6
simultaneously compliance scores get added accordingly)
1.7 Lord of planet’s house is placed in debilitated or in enemy sign
1.8 Planet is in conjugation with lord of 6th or 8th or 12th house
Note: If multiple planets are involved while complying the rule, the β values of all planets complying with the rule contribute to the formula of
compliance score

Table 2: List of negative principles tested for each house of birth chart
Principle No. Principles
2.1 Malefic planets like Saturn, Mars, Rahu or Ketu or Uranus are placed in house
2.2 Lord of 6th or 8th or 12th house is placed in the house
2.3 Saturn or Mars placed just opposite to the house
2.4 House afflicted by 3rd or 10th aspect of Saturn or by 4th or 8th aspect of Mars
Note: If multiple planets are involved while complying the rule, the β values of all planets complying with the rule contribute to the formula of
compliance score

Table 3: List of positive principles tested for each planet. The same set of principles was also used for testing planets which act as ‘lord of
house’
Principle No. Principles
3.1 Planet is in conjugation or opposite or sextile or trine with Venus, Moon or Jupiter
3.2 Planet is influenced by 5th or 9th aspect of Jupiter
3.3 Planet is in Exalted sign in D9 chart
3.4 Planet is placed in 1st, 5th,7th, 9th or 11th house
3.5 Lord of planet’s house is in exalted state or is in it’s own sign
Note: If multiple planets are involved while complying the rule, the α values of all planets complying with the rule contribute to the formula of
compliance score

Table 4: List of positive principles tested for each house of birth chart
Principle No. Principles
4.1 Venus, Jupiter or Moon placed in the house
4.2 Venus, Jupiter or Moon placed in opposite house
4.3 House is influenced by 5th or 9th aspect of Jupiter
4.4 Lord of 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th or 11th houses placed inside the house
Note: If multiple planets are involved while complying the rule, the α values of all planets complying with the rule contribute to the formula of
compliance score

2.3 Measuring astrological negativity and positivity should be looked at as an abstract, and good for comparison
In order to measure astrological negativity and positivity purposes only. Unfortunately, the computation process
associated with an entity in terms of numbers, we have to becomes a little complex to execute, but that's because
quantify everything which has significance from an astrological analysis itself is a very complicated process and
astrological point of view. It is necessary to add here that involves too many complex phenomena. The details of how
there is no standard method of quantification of astrological we translated the negativity and positivity of entities into
negativity or positivity. So, our method and the numbers numbers are provided below.
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2.3.1 Characterisation of each planet
The very first step before we turn to rules for measuring
compliance is to characterise the planets themselves. One of
the assumptions of Astrology is that a planet has a favourable
or adverse effect according to its ‘dignity’ or the zodiac sign
to which it belongs to (Raman, 1996, chapter 1; Rao, 2004,
chapter 3) [16, 17, 18]. In addition, for adverse effects it also
matters whether or not the planet is in retrograde. These two
effects are inherent to the planet means they are not arising
out of any external configuration but are part of the original
attribute of the planet in the given birth chart. We therefore
defined two variables for each planet, one that multiplies the
ability of a planet to have an auspicious or benefic effect
called here as ‘strength multiplicand’, denoted as α(planet)
and another which multiplies malefic effects called here as
‘malefic multiplicand’, termed here as β(planet). Following
the same hierarchy followed by astrology in terms of ability to
add into benefic or malefic effect depending on the zodiac
sign it belongs to [16, 17, 18, 19], we have assigned the values of
these multipliers as shown in Table 5 and Table 6. We must
add here that rational behind assigning these values is to
create a scale for intensity of the effect of planet. Since these
multiplicands are getting applied in both groups in same
manner and we are only using them for comparison purpose
their exact values given in Table 5 and 6 do not matter as long
as we maintain the hierarchy. It should also be noted that in
astrology every planet can have a benefic (auspicious) as well
as a malefic effect and hence both, positivity and negativity,
are calculated separately without summing them together as a
single value.

Table 5: Values of α (planet)

Planet in Exalted zodiac sign within Planet in exalted zodiac sign but not Planet in it’s Planet in friendly Planet in other
± 4 degrees of Exact exaltation within ±4 degrees of exact exaltation own zodiac sign zodiac sign zodiac signs
α (planet) 2 1.5 1.25 1.1 1

Table 6: Values of β (planet)

Planet in debilitated sign within ±4 Planet in debilitated zodiac sign but not Planet in enemy Planet in other
degrees of exact debilitation within ± 4 degrees of exact debilitation zodiac sign zodiac signs
β (planet) values if planet
2 1.5 1.25 1
is not Retrograde
β (planet) values if planet
2.5 2 1.75 1.5
is Retrograde

2.3.2 Measuring the rule compliance
In astrology, applying a rule means checking for a specific
configuration in a birth chart. We considered compliance to
the negative rules as a measure of astrological negativity and
compliance to positive rules as measure of positivity for the
entity under test. We measured following numbers for each
entity as the representative of negativity and positivity and
they become the primary inputs to our statistical tests.
NRa = Number of negative rules applied
NRc = Number of Negative rules complied
PRa = Number of Positive rules applied
PRc = Number of Positive rules complied
all three are in conjugation with Rahu (a hypothetical case
only), then n=4 and (CSN for rule 1.1 of Rahu) = (-20) x (β
(Rahu) x β (Saturn) x β (Mars) x β (Uranus))
Likewise, the values of the CSN are calculated for each planet
using all the negative rules of Table 1, for each house using
all the rules of Table 2 and for each lord of house using all the
rules of Table 1. The summations ∑CSN for a given entity
becomes,

As such, the above should have been sufficient for the
purpose of comparison, but astrology also emphasizes the
examination of the intensity with which the rule is observed.
For example, if a rule for celebrity involves conjugation of
Sun and Jupiter, the rule may get complied if they are in
conjugation but the same conjugation is said to increase the
intensity of the positive effect and probability of occurrence
of being a celebrity if one or both of these planets are exalted.
To take into account these considerations, we now introduce a
concept of “compliance score” for each rule using α and ß
values of planets defined in 2.3.1 above. If the rule is not
complied, the compliance score is zero. If the rule is adhered
to, the compliance score formula for the negative rule is;
The measurement logic for measuring compliance score of
positive rules also remains the same as that of negative rule
except that it is a positive value and we make use of α (planet)
value in calculations.
As an example, if the CSP is calculated for say 10th house for
rule 4.1 which checks presence of auspicious planets in the
house then n will be number of auspicious planets present in
the house. Since the α of each participating planet is
contributing to CSP depending on its dignity, the compliance
score will thus represent the magnitude of positivity involved
while complying the rule. The summations ∑CSP for a given
entity becomes,

Where (-20) is a constant used just to create the comparison

scale, n is number of planets involved in the rule and β
(planet) plays the multiplier role as explained above. For
example, If the negative rule 1.1 given in Table 1 is applied
on Rahu for conjugation with Saturn or Mars or Uranus and if
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In above example ∑CSP for 10th house will be summation of
all CSP values derived by applying all the rules of Table 4.
More are the number of positive rules complied, more will be
the CSP (compliance score) indicating more positivity
associated with 10th house which in turn will be the basis of
predicting more beneficial effects signified by 10th house.
Thus, NRc and the summation of compliance scores that is
∑CSN represent astrological negativity of an entity whereas
PRc and ∑CSP represent astrological positivity of entity.
Their values were calculated for all entities for each chart and
the mean values of the group A and Group B were passed on
to the statistical test for comparison.
2.4 The experimental setup
A computer-based solution was developed to perform the
testing as per details given above. There are three components
to the solution.
2.4.1 Software for casting the birth chart
It reads birth details from an excel sheet, makes use of
commercially available APIs to cast birth charts and write
details like planetary positions, dignities, retrogrades, house
number etc. in the database using Lahiri ayanamsa system
(Rao, 2004, p18) [17].
2.4.2 Analyser Engine
This component applies various rules, measures which ones
comply and calculates the compliance scores. A database
consisting of NRa, NRc, ∑CSN, PRa, PRc and ∑CSP is
created for each astrological entity. Python based automation
developed in this module enables the software to cast and
process hundreds of birth charts of Group A and Group B in
one go.
2.5 Statistical testing
Two sample T test of unequal variances was run on averages
of compliance score (CSN and CSP) of each individual rule
for each entity to examine its validity. To check if the
principals involved act as differentiator when considered as a
combination, the t test of significance was run on averages of
NRc, PRc, ∑CSN and ∑CSP of both the groups for all
entities. Here the one tailed t test Null Hypothesis is that the
difference in the averages between the two groups for a given
entity is equal to or less than 10 percentage. For example, if
the test is being run for average ∑CSP (Sum of Compliance
scores of positive rules) of say 10th house then;
NULL Hypothesis H0 is (Mean ∑CSP (10th House of Group
B) - (Mean ∑CSP (10th House of Group A)) < = 10 pc of
(Mean ∑CSP (10th House of Group A). In other words, this
hypothesis is basically saying that there is no difference in the
averages of ∑CSP (10th House) of both the groups beyond
10% and hence positive principles tested are not valid as a
combination for 10th house.
In above example, Alternative Hypothesis HALT is (Mean
∑CSP (10th House Group B) - (Mean ∑CSP (10th House
Group A)) > 10 pc of (Mean ∑CSP (10th House Group A)
The alternative Hypothesis is stating that the difference
between two groups is over 10%, and hence the principles
Table 7: Results of One tailed t test for individual rule compliance (Positive rules defined for planets) (Test run on CSP values, N1 = 509, N2 =
742, Hypothesised Diff = 10 pc, One tailed T Critical = 1.647)
Principle
Principle 3.1 Principle 3.2
No.
Principle Planet is in conjugation or Planet is influenced by Planet is in Exalted sign in Planet is placed in 1 ,st
Description opposite or sextile or trine 5th or 9th aspect of
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under test are acting as a differentiator in combination
supporting the validity of astrology. As such, if astrological
principles we tested are true and if they have to give
prediction on life critical matters, the difference between two
groups is expected to be much more, of the order of 30% at
least, as against 10% we are testing here and hence it is a very
liberal and easy test for astrological principles to pass
through. At the same time, testing a null hypothesis with 10%
hypothetical difference criteria is the most stringent test for us
to refute those principles. However, we decided to run the test
in this manner to avoid any ambiguity and to give maximum
benefit to the astrological principles to prove themselves.
3.0 Data
We chose to take majority of celebrity birth data from Lois
Rodden’s Astrodatabank [23, 24] where accuracy ratings are
maintained systematically and data is collected worldwide
without any bias. Approximately 2000 entries from
Astrodatabank were filtered using following three selections
in the same order as they are given below;
 For the entries of Rodden rating AA (considered as most
accurate entries)
 Date of birth after 1900.
 Category: Public figures (famous personalities)
We also added 250 charts of Indian celebrities to this group
using various creditable sources. We then went through the
details of each entry in order to ascertain that the selected
name qualifies for the ‘Celebrity’ group. As a result of this
selection, 742 entries were taken forward as Group B.
For Group A, we used data from the personal collection
because we wanted to ensure that the person is known to us.
This made the assessment easy and we could include the chart
under the ordinary category with sufficient confidence. In
most cases, it was quite evident that the person is not a
celebrity. However, to further increase the confidence to
include the name in the ordinary group, we occasionally
interviewed the person, searched Wikipedia to make sure
there is no biography page, checked other social media
locations or talked to people who knew the person very well.
As mentioned earlier, we only used names that were atleast 50
years old. We got 509 cases for Group A with this approach.
Statistical test calculator (Public service of Creative Research
Systems) [25] used in this experiment stipulated that we need
to have a minimum sample size of 661 (both groups together)
to achieve a confidence level of 99% and a confidence
interval of 5% to test the difference in the two groups. Our
data size of 1251 charts meets this criterion. The results
presented here are in terms of averages or percentages and
hence different size of data of two groups does not matter.
4.0 Statistical Analysis
4.1 Principles applicable for planets
The results of the five fundamental positive principles we
tested for various planets are given in Table 7. Description of
the principle we tested and the analysis of results is given
below.
Principle 3.3 Principle 3.4 Principle 3.5
Lord of planet’s house
D9 chart 5th,7th, 9th or 11th house is in exalted state or is
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with Venus, Moon or Jupiter Jupiter in it’s own sign

One tailed t One tailed P One tailed t One tailed One tailed t One tailed P One tailed t One tailed P One tailed t One tailed
Planet
stat val stat P val stat val stat val stat P val
Sun -1.51 0.93 0.80 0.21 -1.54 0.94 -1.89 0.97 -2.07 0.98
Moon -3.20 1.00 -1.39 0.92 -0.76 0.78 -0.26 0.60 0.00 0.50
Mars -1.34 0.91 -2.33 0.99 -0.10 0.54 -1.02 0.85 0.37 0.35
Mer -3.10 1.00 -0.11 0.55 0.20 0.42 -3.36 1.00 -2.36 0.99
Jup -2.27 0.99 NA NA DTL DTL -2.22 0.99 -3.56 1.00
Ven -2.89 1.00 -1.08 0.86 -0.58 0.72 -2.11 0.98 -1.66 0.95
Asc -1.37 0.91 -1.56 0.94 NA NA NA NA -3.42 1.00
NA – Rule not applicable and hence not tested. For example, Jupiter will never have it’s own 5 th, 9th aspect or Ascendant will never be in other
houses.
DTL - Number of cases complying the rule are too less in both groups to run statistical test.
Testing of individual rules for slower planets namely Saturn, Rahu and Ketu require much larger data size and hence not done here.
Note: Since the test is executed on CSP which is compliance score of positive rule, the dignity of planets involved is already built in.
Conclusion: Null Hypothesis could not be rejected for any planet for compliance with any of the rules tested since the p-value is > 0.05 in all
cases. None of the principles defined for planet therefore is empirically valid for tested planets.

4.1.1 Principle 3.1 - Planet is in conjugation or opposite or
sex tile or trine with Venus, Moon or Jupiter: This
principle deals with the probability of a planet having a
difference of 0, 60, or 180 degrees (allowing tolerance of ±4
degrees) with one, two or all three planets namely Venus,
Moon and Jupiter, which are considered as auspicious. Vedic
astrology assumes that such configuration results into
beneficial effect related to significance of planet. We however
found that none of the planets (including Sun or Mars which
are traditionally considered as significant for the fame) nor
Ascendant, have a significantly higher percentage of such
configurations in Group B as against Group A, despite having
opposite life patterns. The principle therefore got disproved.
4.1.2 Principle 3.2
Planet is influenced by 5th or 9th aspect of Jupiter: This
principle deals with the probability of a planet having a
difference of 120 or 240 degrees (allowing tolerance of ±4
degrees) with Jupiter which is assumed by Vedic astrology as
increasing the beneficial effect related to significance of the
planet. Again, we find that none of the planets including Sun
and Mars nor Ascendant, have a significantly higher
percentage of such configurations in Group B as against
Group A though they are completely different in terms of
their success and fame. The principle therefore is not valid.
4.1.3 Principle 3.3
Planet in Exalted sign in D9 chart: Vedic astrology assumes
that the planets in exalted sign give higher beneficial results.
The same principle is considered to be true for D9 charts too.
We find from the t test however that the probabilities of any
planet to get placed in such zodiac signs are similar in both
the groups for all the planets and hence the principle is not
valid.
4.1.4 Principle 3.4
Planet in 1st, 5th, 7th, 9th or 11th house: This principle is one
of the primary positive principles considered for predicting
any beneficial life effect. For instance, to predict the celebrity
status this rule will be checked for planets which are
considered as ‘significant’ for predicting fame and career
success. Mathematically this is a probability that a planet is in
the zodiac sign of x, x+4, x+6, x+8 or x+10 when x is the
zodiac sign number of Ascendant. Regardless of which planet
is significant for fame we find that none of the planets have a
significantly higher probability to get placed in these zodiac
signs when the native belongs to Celebrity group disproving
the basis of the principle.
4.1.5 Principle 3.5
Lord of Planet’s house in Exalted or it’s own sign: For
making a prediction, Vedic astrology does consider the state
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of lord of house in which the planet is placed. If the lord of
house is in exalted or it’s own sign the benefic effect given by
planet are considered to get the boost. We however find from
our t test that the probabilities of such configurations are
equal for all the planets in both the groups and principle does
not get any empirical support.
We also applied rules to the Ascendant using its degrees and
zodiac sign. As Ascendant is not a planet, it does not have
debilitated or exalted signs associated with it and hence some
of the rules of Table 1 and Table 3 are not applicable. For the
applicable rules however, it has shown no significant
difference in compliance. Ascendant is a fundamental and
important phenomenon in astrology, equally important to the
prediction of fame, and various astrological configurations,
either of auspicious or malefic in nature, are regarded as
having major influence on natives [17, 18, 19, 20, 21]. As can be
seen from the results however we did not find this theory to
be true in our testing.
It is important to note that in our test, we compare the
compliance scores of the rules where-in the dignity of all the
planets involved is already incorporated. These principles are
therefore proved invalid in spite of the consideration of the
dignity of the planets which leaves no room for speculation on
that front. Traditionally Vedic astrology believes that Sun,
Mars, Venus and Jupiter are significant for the predictions of
being a celebrity [16, 17, 18, 19], however the above results show
that their significance to fame is not getting proved for above
rules at the least.
4.2 Principles for Lords of houses
In addition to testing the principles described in 4.1 for all
planets, we also tested them for planets which act as lords of
individual houses and the results are given in Table 8.
Astrology believes that, like every planet, house lords also
play a role in prediction. The lord of house is nothing but a
ruler planet of the zodiac sign of the house [16, 17, 18, 19].
Depending on the ascending sign, the zodiac signs of the
houses are different. In our experiment, when two groups
were compared, we did not find any difference in compliance
of the rules by the lords of the houses. In context of
celebrities, especially, astrology expects that lord of 10th
house will have more positivity as compared to ordinary
people and hence will comply above positive rules with more
frequency in Group B than Group A. Empirically, though, this
has neither found to be true for lord of 10th house, nor for
lords of the 1st, 5th or 9th house which are also considered as
significant for being a celebrity, nor for lord of any other
houses. This certainly poses questions around the fundamental
rules being defined around the concept of the lords of houses.
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Table 8: Results of One tailed t test for individual rule compliance (Positive rules defined for planets that act as lords of houses) (Test run on
CSP values, N1 = 509, N2 = 742, Hypothesised Diff = 10 pc, One tailed T Critical = 1.647)
Principle Principle 3.1 Principle 3.2 Principle 3.3 Principle 3.4 Principle 3.5
Planet is in conjugation or Planet is influenced by Planet is placed in Lord of planet’s house is in
Principle Planet is in Exalted
opposite or sextile or trine 5th or 9th aspect of 1st, 4th,5th, 9th or exalted state or is in it’s
Description sign in D9 chart
with Venus, Moon or Jupiter Jupiter 11th house own sign
One One
One tailed t One tailed P One tailed t One tailed One tailed P One tailed One tailed t One tailed P
Lords of Houses tailed t tailed P
stat val stat P val val t stat stat val
stat val
Lord of 1st House -4.38 1.00 -1.03 0.85 DTL DTL -3.85 1.00 -2.10 0.98
Lord of 2nd House -1.22 0.89 -0.48 0.69 DTL DTL -1.45 0.93 -1.63 0.95
Lord of 3rd House -0.27 0.61 -0.18 0.57 DTL DTL -1.90 0.97 -1.25 0.89
Lord of 4th House -3.38 1.00 -0.61 0.73 DTL DTL -3.48 1.00 -0.46 0.68
Lord of 5th House -0.90 0.82 -0.15 0.56 DTL DTL -2.58 0.99 -1.12 0.87
Lord of 6th House -4.43 1.00 -0.54 0.70 DTL DTL -2.15 0.98 -1.72 0.96
Lord of 7th House -1.68 0.95 0.28 0.39 DTL DTL -1.91 0.97 -1.36 0.91
Lord of 8th House -1.49 0.93 -1.44 0.93 DTL DTL -1.75 0.96 -0.96 0.83
Lord of 9th House -1.10 0.86 -0.80 0.79 DTL DTL -1.29 0.90 -1.28 0.90
Lord of 10th House -1.75 0.96 -0.15 0.56 DTL DTL -2.02 0.98 -2.38 0.99
Lord of 11th House -3.97 1.00 -3.29 1.00 DTL DTL -3.17 1.00 -3.27 1.00
Lord of 12th House -1.18 0.88 -0.71 0.76 DTL DTL -2.54 0.99 -2.37 0.99
DTL - Number of cases complying the rule are too less in both groups to run statistical test.
Note: Since the test is executed on CSP which is compliance score of positive rule, the dignity of planets involved is already built in.
Conclusion: Null Hypothesis could not be rejected for any lord of planet for compliance with any of the rules tested since the p-value is > 0.05
in all cases. None of the tested positive principles defined for lords of planet is therefore empirically valid.

4.3 Principles for houses experiment for at least one. All four principles are assumed by
In astrology, like planets and lords of houses, the houses astrology to give beneficial or desired effects. If they are
themselves are also considered characteristic of life effects indeed valid, we expect them to get complied with a higher
depending on the significance attached to them [16, 17, 18, 19]. frequency in Group B for at least one of the twelve houses.
Regardless of which house has significance for being the The principles and their results are given in Table 9 and are
celebrity, we tested the four most fundamental rules for all discussed below.
twelve houses to see if they show up more positivity in our
Table 9: Results of One tailed t test for individual rule compliance (Positive rules defined for Houses) (Test run on CSP values, N1 = 509, N2 =
742, Hypothesised Diff = 10 pc, One tailed T Critical = 1.647)
Principle 4.1 Principle 4.2 Principle 4.3 Principle 4.4
Venus, Jupiter or Moon Venus, Jupiter or Moon House is influenced by 5th or Lord of 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th or 11th houses
Principle
placed in the house placed in opposite house 9th aspect of Jupiter placed inside the house
One tailed t One tailed p One tailed t One tailed p One tailed t One tailed p
House One tailed t stat One tailed p value
stat value stat value stat value
House 1 -0.49 0.69 -0.08 0.53 -1.29 0.90 0.21 0.42
House 2 -1.39 0.92 -0.20 0.58 -1.80 0.96 -0.95 0.83
House 3 -0.11 0.54 -0.06 0.53 -1.93 0.97 1.41 0.08
House 4 -0.84 0.80 -0.87 0.81 0.57 0.28 -0.86 0.81
House 5 -2.39 0.99 -2.63 1.00 0.65 0.26 -2.89 1.00
House 6 -1.75 0.96 -0.82 0.79 -2.03 0.98 -1.03 0.85
House 7 -0.08 0.53 -0.49 0.69 -2.16 0.98 -0.96 0.83
House 8 -0.20 0.58 -1.39 0.92 0.98 0.16 0.81 0.21
House 9 -0.06 0.53 -0.11 0.54 -2.00 0.98 -1.84 0.97
House 10 -0.87 0.81 -0.84 0.80 -0.52 0.70 -0.67 0.75
House 11 -2.63 1.00 -2.39 0.99 -1.61 0.95 -3.16 1.00
House 12 -0.82 0.79 -1.75 0.96 1.12 0.13 -0.66 0.75
One tailed T Critical = 1.647
Note: Since the test is executed on CSP which is compliance score of positive rule, the dignity of planets involved is already built in.
Conclusion: Null Hypothesis could not be rejected for any of the 12 houses for compliance with any of the rules tested since the p-value is >
0.05 in all cases. None of the four positive principles defined for houses therefore is empirically valid.

4.3.1 Principle principle anticipates auspicious planets, namely Venus,

Venus, Jupiter or Moon placed in the house: This principle
anticipates auspicious planets, namely Venus, Jupiter and
Moon to be in the house for giving beneficial effects. As can
be seen from the t test, none of these twelve houses in Group
B show any more positivity getting created through
compliance with this principle. We therefore do not find merit
in this principle.
4.3.2 Principle 4.2
Venus, Jupiter or Moon placed in opposite house: This
Jupiter and Moon to be opposite to the house for giving
beneficial effects, however was found to be invalid.
4.3.3 Principle 4.3
House is influenced by 5th or 9th aspect of Jupiter:
Astrology assumes that when Jupiter has 5th or 9th aspect with
the house, it adds to the positivity of the house which results
in getting more beneficial life effects that are associated with
the house. This rule was compiled equally in both groups
showing that such phenomenon does not take place.

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4.3.4 Principle 4.4
Lord of 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th or 11th houses placed inside the
house: The consideration here from astrology point of view is
that the planets which act as lords of 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th or 11th
houses play an auspicious role in birth chart. When they get
placed in the house, they contribute to the positive effect of
life which is associated with the house. The results show that
these lords do not get placed in any particular house with a
higher probability in birth charts of Group B as against Group
A. The principle around their placements is therefore not
found to be valid.
As seen in section 2.2, in astrology, like principles for benefic
effects which are referred as positive principles in this article,
there are negative principles too. We have also seen that these
negative principles are generally defined exactly contrary to
the positive principle from an astrological point of view. This
point can be better understood by comparing the lists of
principles in Tables 1 and 3 and Tables 2 and 4. To make our
study complete, we have tested negative principles given in
Table 1 for all planets and principles given in Table 2 for all
houses. Here if those principles are true, we should see more
compliance in Group A (a group of Ordinary people) as this
group is less in fame and success compared to Group B. In
our test, however we did not find any significant difference in
Group A than Group B.
After disproving each of the principles individually, we also
examined a possibility of these principles acting together to
give rise to a differentiation. In other words, we examined
whether the total negativity or total positivity associated with
entities arising out of compliance to set of negative and
positive rules respectively, is acting as a differentiator for
prediction. As stated in section 2, the total positivity of an
entity is represented by the PRc, and ∑CSP whereas total
negativity is represented by NRc and ∑CSN. Their
measurements are also already explained in Section 2. From
the astrological point of view, one would obviously expect a
greater number of positive rules getting complied on an
average in Group B. When tested for each planet, house and
lord of house through one tailed two sample T test of
significance (Table 10) however, we did not find any
significant difference in the average number of positive rules
complied in Group B as against Group A nor was there any
significant difference in terms of averages of the respective
compliance scores. On similar lines, we compared the total
number of negative rules complied with and their respective
compliance scores for these entities and found that their
averages were also not significantly different among the two
groups. Thus, the total number of negative rules complied
with or their compliance scores can also not be the criterion
for predicting undesired effects. With these results we are
ruling out number of traditional beliefs of Vedic astrology
that assumes a greater strength or positivity of significant
planets like Sun, Mars or Jupiter giving the fame to the native.
The positivity’s of significant houses, namely 1st,5th, 9th, 10th
or 11th or that of their lords, which are conventionally
assumed to make a person famous, were not significantly
different too showing no basis for those assumptions.
Most astrologers use the approach of counting number of
rules complied with to predict beneficial or adverse effects.
While analysing the birth chart for predicting a beneficial
effect they count the number of positive rules that are
complied with (PRc) by the significant entities and compare
with the threshold value that is established based on their past
experiences. Similar approach is used for predicting adverse
effect using NRc. It is important to understand however that
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the prediction of beneficial effects, like more fame, on the
basis of greater compliance of positive rules is always going
to be erroneous. This is because empirically both groups have
the same compliance on an average basis, have the same
standard deviation (spread) and hence there is an equal
probability of a person being a celebrity or ordinary for a
given PRc value. We can take the example of a chart where
the number of positive rules complied by Sun is say 3. The
prediction of a person being celebrity, based on positive rules
complied by Sun, just because compliance exceeds 1.56
(Group B mean) will be incorrect. This is due to the fact that
the number of rules complied varies from zero to four in both
the groups. If we count the number of cases with compliance
greater than three in both groups, for the sake of this example,
they will not be significantly different. This means that there
are as many ordinary people as there are celebrities with such
a higher PRc. This is also true for all other PRc or NRc values
of any other entity. It is also true even for summation of a few
entities, (an approach of using combination of entities for
prediction), and hence it is incorrect to make predictions on
the basis of total number of rules complied.
If we consolidate, we tested 13 fundamental principles
individually for planets as well as for all lords of houses and 8
principles for all 12 houses and found them to be invalid. This
corresponds to testing close to 262 rules or configurations
(Table 7, 8 and 9) and none of them acts as a differentiator
that speaks for itself. Moreover, as part of comprehensive
testing, in total we tested 34 entities and 68 parameters
(considering negativity and positivity for each entity) but
none of them differ beyond 10% in both groups, which shows
the actual veracity of Vedic astrology. We will like to
highlight that these results are the replication of results of
similar tests in our earlier experiments, namely Cancer
diseased versus people who never had it [15] and mentally
disabled versus intelligent [14]. In these two experiments too,
there was no significant difference of astrological positivity or
negative of any entity despite having completely opposite life
effects. This provides sufficient evidence that the fundamental
principles of Vedic astrology tested here are invalid. Despite
these extensive tests and conclusive evidence, there will still
be arguments as to what was not done and what additional
rules should have been tested. We certainly do not pretend to
have tested the whole scope of astrology. However, we do not
want to lose sight of what is already established here with
complete clarity. While more principles can always be tested,
there should be a logical explanation as to why testing of 21
most fundamental principles fail when tested individually (for
planets, houses and lords of houses as applicable) and why
none of the 68 parameters of our comprehensive test could
show any difference in any of our three experiments despite
opposite life pattens. Our results show that prima facie
nothing remains as ‘unique configuration’ in the birth-charts
especially when a large number of them are examined
statistically. Before using the configurations for predictions,
astrologers and research communities must test them
empirically on the basis of two opposing groups with
sufficient data size, as stipulated in section 3.0. This is
necessary because the principles we have proven as invalid in
our experiments are invariably used to predict other effects of
life in everyday practice by applying them to various entities.
For instance, the rules listed in Table 1 and Table 2 are also
used to predict unfavourable marriage outcomes, by applying
to Venus and 7th house as they are considered as ‘significant’
for marriage. And this goes on for almost all areas of
predictions covered by astrology. Such predictions or
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interpretations not only impact the person but can also principles are not empirically proven. Given the enormous
influence how society conducts itself with the natives. This is impact of Vedic astrology on a massive population such as
very unfair and unjustified, particularly when the underlying India, this calls for a thorough and transparent investigation.

Table 10: Comparison of averages of NRc, PRc, ∑CSN and ∑CSP of planets, houses and lords of houses and corresponding one tailed t test
results (Hypothesised Difference = 10 pc)
Group A T test results of
Group B Celebrity T test results of
Ordinary (No Celebrity) Number of Rules
(Analysis of 742 Charts) compliance scores
(Analysis of 509 Charts) complied
Average of % of Average Average of % of Average One tailed t One tailed t
One tailed
(∑CSN) for number of rules (∑CSN) for number of rules statistic for One tailed statistics for
p value
negative rules complied (NRc negative rules complied (NRc compliance p value for No of rules
Rules/Applied entity for No of
and (∑CSP) for negative rules and (∑CSP) for negative rules score Complian complied (T
rules
for positive and PRc for for positive and PRc for (T Critical = ce score Critical =
complied
rules positive rules) rules positive rules) 1.647) 1.647)
Negative rules applied
-35.6 14.29% -33.6 14.45% -0.686 0.75 -2.431 0.99
to ascendant
Positive rules applied
52.5 59.96% 51.0 59.92% -4.496 1.00 -6.664 1.00
to ascendant
Negative rules applied
-44.2 19.38% -39.5 18.21% 0.390 0.35 -0.851 0.80
to sun
Positive rules applied
37.6 31.91% 36.8 31.21% -2.813 1.00 -3.499 1.00
to sun
Negative rules applied
-42.3 17.46% -39.6 16.93% -0.580 0.72 -1.594 0.94
to moon
Positive rules applied
32.4 27.66% 31.3 28.22% -2.738 1.00 -2.078 0.98
to moon
Negative rules applied
-36.2 17.34% -39.3 17.96% -3.545 1.00 -3.289 1.00
to mars
Positive rules applied
38.7 32.50% 39.5 32.80% -1.769 0.96 -2.741 1.00
to mars
Negative rules applied
-46.3 20.75% -43.2 21.06% -0.598 0.73 -2.904 1.00
to mercury
Positive rules applied
44.1 34.18% 40.5 32.72% -4.745 1.00 -4.462 1.00
to mercury
Negative rules applied
-47.9 21.61% -46.0 22.15% -1.368 0.91 -3.481 1.00
to Jupiter
Positive rules applied
32.7 28.64% 30.7 27.12% -3.507 1.00 -4.303 1.00
to Jupiter
Negative rules applied
-42.4 18.59% -43.8 18.88% -2.824 1.00 -2.921 1.00
to Venus
Positive rules applied
34.6 31.39% 32.0 29.38% -3.727 1.00 -4.814 1.00
to Venus
Negative rules applied
-40.5 20.06% -39.8 19.59% -1.698 0.96 -1.819 0.97
to Saturn
Positive rules applied
37.4 32.18% 38.0 32.18% -1.861 0.97 -2.951 1.00
to Saturn
Negative rules applied
-31.7 15.79% -33.4 16.85% -3.017 1.00 -3.703 1.00
to Rahu
Positive rules applied
33.8 28.68% 38.0 32.94% 0.505 0.31 1.282 0.10
to Rahu
Negative rules applied
-30.4 16.48% -34.6 17.50% -4.751 1.00 -3.738 1.00
to Ketu
Positive rules applied
32.7 28.68% 36.1 29.00% 0.096 0.46 -2.429 0.99
to Ketu
Negative rules applied
-43.6 19.67% -40.7 18.88% -0.565 0.71 -1.393 0.92
to lord of 1st house
Positive rules applied
36.7 33.67% 31.4 31.11% -5.840 1.00 -5.281 1.00
to lord of 1st house
Negative rules applied
-43.8 20.16% -42.4 19.78% -1.398 0.92 -2.017 0.98
to lord of 2nd house
Positive rules applied
32.3 31.75% 32.0 30.62% -2.319 0.99 -3.958 1.00
to lord of 2nd house
Negative rules applied
-42.7 19.35% -41.6 19.71% -1.542 0.94 -3.006 1.00
to lord of 3rd house
Positive rules applied
31.2 30.84% 32.8 30.94% -0.954 0.83 -2.827 1.00
to lord of 3rd house
Negative rules applied
-43.3 19.70% -42.4 19.78% -1.580 0.94 -2.529 0.99
to lord of 4th house
31.9 31.24% Positive rules applied 29.4 29.06% -3.886 1.00 -4.900 1.00
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to lord of 4th house

Negative rules applied
-43.3 19.38% -41.0 19.10% -0.862 0.81 -2.140 0.98
to lord of 5th house
Positive rules applied
30.1 29.74% 30.5 29.92% -1.703 0.96 -2.623 1.00
to lord of 5th house
Negative rules applied
-41.5 19.35% -41.8 19.51% -2.229 0.99 -2.685 1.00
to lord of 6th house
Positive rules applied
34.7 32.57% 30.0 30.43% -5.232 1.00 -5.012 1.00
to lord of 6th house
Negative rules applied
-41.4 19.25% -42.2 19.69% -2.442 0.99 -3.079 1.00
to lord of 7th house
Positive rules applied
32.0 31.39% 31.7 30.59% -2.401 0.99 -3.893 1.00
to lord of 7th house
Negative rules applied
-40.4 18.39% -41.1 18.80% -2.472 0.99 -2.977 1.00
to lord of 8th house
Positive rules applied
33.0 30.88% 32.5 30.92% -2.486 0.99 -2.893 1.00
to lord of 8th house
Negative rules applied
-41.4 19.03% -43.0 19.74% -2.876 1.00 -3.380 1.00
to lord of 9th house
Positive rules applied
32.2 31.36% 32.1 30.86% -2.063 0.98 -3.243 1.00
to lord of 9th house
Negative rules applied
-46.0 20.41% -42.6 20.33% -0.386 0.65 -2.442 0.99
to lord of 10th house
Positive rules applied
32.9 31.83% 31.9 30.70% -2.770 1.00 -3.988 1.00
to lord of 10th house
Negative rules applied
-44.9 20.11% -42.3 19.76% -0.768 0.78 -2.057 0.98
to lord of 11th house
Positive rules applied
36.4 33.24% 30.6 30.00% -5.714 1.00 -5.877 1.00
to lord of 11th house
Negative rules applied
-40.9 18.74% -42.4 19.34% -2.905 1.00 -3.361 1.00
to lord of 12th house
Positive rules applied
32.6 31.12% 32.4 31.35% -2.203 0.99 -2.686 1.00
to lord of 12th house
Negative rules applied
-31.3 30.30% -28.8 28.74% -0.229 0.59 -0.872 0.81
to house1
Positive rules applied
22.0 22.45% 23.3 23.99% -0.642 0.74 -0.569 0.72
to house1
Negative rules applied
-30.5 29.37% -30.7 29.68% -1.978 0.98 -2.261 0.99
to house2
Positive rules applied
22.6 22.69% 22.2 22.51% -1.982 0.98 -2.013 0.98
to house2
Negative rules applied
-30.1 29.72% -30.6 30.09% -2.139 0.98 -2.263 0.99
to house3
Positive rules applied
18.7 19.79% 20.5 20.96% -0.063 0.53 -0.673 0.75
to house3
Negative rules applied
-28.5 27.70% -28.6 28.91% -1.764 0.96 -2.704 1.00
to house4
Positive rules applied
20.7 20.83% 21.3 22.17% -1.090 0.86 -0.604 0.73
to house4
Negative rules applied
-30.7 30.21% -31.1 30.39% -2.050 0.98 -2.077 0.98
to house5
Positive rules applied
23.3 23.43% 20.6 21.46% -3.802 1.00 -3.435 1.00
to house5
Negative rules applied
-30.1 29.57% -29.4 29.65% -1.452 0.93 -2.120 0.98
to house6
Positive rules applied
21.8 22.64% 20.6 21.16% -2.564 0.99 -3.106 1.00
to house6
Negative rules applied
-31.7 30.50% -29.3 29.41% -0.333 0.63 -1.258 0.90
to house7
Positive rules applied
21.6 21.95% 21.7 22.34% -1.522 0.94 -1.416 0.92
to house7
Negative rules applied
-29.7 29.37% -30.7 30.05% -2.565 0.99 -2.531 0.99
to house8
Positive rules applied
20.3 20.38% 22.3 22.71% -0.019 0.51 0.232 0.41
to house8
Negative rules applied
-29.8 29.03% -29.4 29.21% -1.527 0.94 -2.046 0.98
to house9
Positive rules applied
21.3 21.61% 20.9 21.39% -1.920 0.97 -1.972 0.98
to house9
Negative rules applied
-28.7 28.54% -29.2 28.77% -2.117 0.98 -2.119 0.98
to house10
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International Journal of Jyotish Research http://www.jyotishajournal.com

Positive rules applied

21.8 21.76% 22.2 22.71% -1.354 0.91 -0.989 0.84
to house10
Negative rules applied
-32.0 31.93% -32.8 32.11% -2.396 0.99 -2.222 0.99
to house11
Positive rules applied
23.9 24.56% 20.0 20.96% -4.845 1.00 -4.986 1.00
to house11
Negative rules applied
-31.2 30.65% -27.9 28.10% 0.356 0.36 -0.177 0.57
to house12
Positive rules applied
20.7 21.22% 21 21.53% -1.215 0.89 -1.478 0.93
to house12
Conclusion: Null Hypothesis could not be rejected for any of the planet, house or lord of house for compliance with set of negative or positive
rules tested since the p-value is > 0.05 in all cases. The total astrological negativity or total positivity, associated with the entities that arise
through compliance of negative or positive rules respectively, is not significantly different in both the groups despite opposite life patterns. The
rules tested and the underlying principles therefore are not empirically valid.

5. Conclusions 4. Ertel S. Appraisal of Shawn Carlson's renowned

This article examines few fundamental principles of Vedic
astrology through a systematic empirical experiment
conducted on 742 birth charts of people who have been 5.
celebrities and 509 charts of people who have not been
celebrities and have led ordinary lives. Each of the 21 6.
fundamental principles of Vedic astrology we tested was
found to be invalid as the compliance was not significantly 7.
different between both groups. Further, to examine whether
these principles act together to create differentiation, the
comprehensive test of comparing astrological positivity and
8.
negativity of all entities (planets, houses, and house lords) has
been demonstrated as a potential empirical approach. If the
principles we tested were true, we should have seen 9.
significant differences in the total negativity or positivity of
the two groups for at least one planet, house or lord of the
house, but there were none. Thus, our results proved that 10.
neither these principles are valid individually nor in
combination. Two of our earlier experiments on similar lines
for other pairs of the group, namely mentally disabled versus
intelligent and Cancer versus no cancer, had shown the
similar results for the same set of principles. It shows just how 11.
invalid they are across the board and beyond any doubt.
While there could be arguments on what additional rules we
should have tested, the results we presented deserves 12.
explanation on the basis of astrology as to why testing of 21
most fundamental principles fail when tested individually (for
planets, houses and lords of houses as applicable) and why 13.
none of the 34 entities could show any difference in terms of
astrological negativity or positivity between two groups 14.
despite completely opposite life patterns. Since the principles
we tested are something that one cannot do away with, in the
everyday practice of astrology, their invalidity proven through
our test raises many questions about the accuracy of the
predictions of Vedic astrology in general and career in
particular.
15.
6. Acknowledgement
We are grateful to Astro-databank (Lois Rodden’s
AstroDatabank) from which we extracted the data used in this
experiment. The collection of such data worldwide with so
much detail is a huge effort and is a vital input to our research
work.
16.
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